If you're so passionate about this it would be interesting to try a game where you only are breeding to alleviate negative side effects/birth defects/genetic issues and see how well that goes over with people.

We had human avatars on Vis Servo and everyone liked them. We did contests where we would set a theme and then you would dress your avatar up for that theme and then everyone got to vote on the best ones. It was well liked. The biggest downside is that avatars require a LOT of clothing and customizations drawn on a frequent basis so that people get a lot of customization choices otherwise they're pretty boring when they all look alike.

Working on an open source, fully responsive HTML5 MMO game called WTF Adventure which is originally based off of BrowserQuest and Tap Tap Adventure. I've been completely re-doing the HUD and interface and have plans to completely redo the maps and rest of the graphics, as well as adding new functionality. If anyone is interested in trying it out or contributing or even getting their own copy to do whatever you want with you can clone the repo here: https://github.com/design1online/WTF-Adventure

I've worked with PaulSonny for several months now. He's been writing unit tests for Pet Game Framework. He is always delivers when he says he will and has been really reliable. If I find any issues with something he fixes it promptly. I enjoy working with him and I hope to continue working with him for a long time to come.

Getting closer to full code coverage on Pet Game Framework!
Yeah so code is boring, here's some cute pets that come free with the framework including their layered .PSD files.
PGF is fully responsive so it works on desktops, tablets and mobile phones.
It comes with a comprehensive admin panel so there's no programming required for out of the box game functionality.
It also comes with nifty things like wysiwyg editor, date picker, time picker and color pickers!
You can see the full list of features and more screenshots on my website: http://design1online.com/downloads/pet-game-framework/

There are tools on google chrome which will let you quickly convert your site to different device displays. This is a good way to test it in different screen sizes.
You can also use the network tab to then see how long it will take the image to load under different network conditions. IE you don't want a phone using 3G to have to load a 2MB background image.

Pet games can be written in any language ie CryptoKitties is written using block chain, haha. I think most people use PHP because it's easy to learn and has weak data types and syntax structure like Javascript so there's a lot less ramping up than a strongly typed and highly opinionated and strongly formatted languages. If you're new to programming PHP is also popular with creating websites in general.
However, it's not the most current and trendy language anymore. The latest craze is Javascript and JS frameworks like Angular, React and Vue. You can also use HTML5 and their new canvas. Most people are then running a NodeJS backend.
As far as do you need a framework and which one should you use, that's an entirely personal question. It really depends on what you're trying to make and if a framework is a good fit for that, and why or why not. I would recommend if you think you need a framework that you research all the ones you're interested in and then make a pros and cons list for each one with respect for what you're trying to make. What might work well for one pet game may not work as well for another.

At first you might be thinking, why do I need a budget? I can make a game for free! The answer to this is, yes, you can, however you still need a strategy on how to accomplish it because eventually even a game you created for free will cost you something.
Consider some of the following things you will need to make your game:
Domain Name
Hosting/Servers
IDEs
Internet Access
Now consider some of the things you might be able to do without but are probably still an integral part of getting your game up and running:
Graphics
Music
3D Models
Level Editors
Tooling
Graphic creation/editing software
Music creation/editing software
3D creation/editing software
Software licenses
Upgraded computer
Upgraded graphics card
Bigger computer monitor
External speakers
Quality headphones
Sit down and map out all of the expenses you foresee as being necessary to complete your game. To make it easy, you can create a chart with all of the things you’ll need for your game, how many of them, the cost per each and then the total cost. Try something like this table below which budgets out a game being designed by 3 developers.
Item
Amount
Cost Per Each
Total Cost
Domain Name
1
$25 a year
$25 a year
Servers
3
$5 a month
$15 a month
Graphics
40 per level (3 levels)
$15 each graphic
$1,800
Music
15 songs
$50 per song
$750
3D Models
6 characters
$250 per character
$15 a month
Sound Forge Licenses
3
$50
$150
WallabyJS
3
$100
$300
Adobe Cloud Licenses
3
$30 a month
$90 a month
Unity Plus License
3
$35 a month
$105 a month
Mac Book Pro
1
$1,800
$1,800
Google Drive Storage Upgrade
3
$10 a month
$30 a month
One Time Costs:
$4,800
Monthly Costs:
$255
Yearly Cost:
$25
1 Year Total Development Costs: $7,885
5 Year Total Development Costs: $20,225
Take your total costs and figure out your one time costs, monthly expenses, and yearly expenses. Now figure out how much it would cost for a year of development. Then factor for five years worth of development time, because let's face it, you usually don't open a game after just one year of development. You can see how quickly your small game goes from "free" or reasonable expenses to something extremely expensive.
If you can’t afford to spend this amount of money on your game then you need to go back to your concept and re-work it until you get a budget that you can manage, especially if your game will require multiple years of development effort. Even if you can get free hosting and you cut out all other expenses you still need to think about paying for your domain name every year and your internet bill each month. On top of that you'll need to consider once your game opens how your expenses will change. Typically a free hosting environment has extremely limited bandwidth, CPU or RAM and that may make your game quickly inaccessible. Consider what that means once your game is open and being used, and how you may have to change servers and the costs and downtime that will be associated to the move.
If you’re really determined to stick with your original concept and can’t trim anything more out of your budget there are a few things you can do.
Look for outside investors. One thing to keep in mind, most investors want to see a working demo or extensive documentation of your game before they’ll even consider opening their pocketbooks. Typically investors will demand more than 50% of whatever profits you make from your game and will want reports on your progress and continuous demos throughout the life cycle of your game until it hits completion and then again after it’s running. Reporting to your investors will cut into your time and your profits so this is just something to consider if you want to go that route.
Hold off on some features for now. You don't have to bring your game to 100% completion of your long term vision in order to open in. In fact, most games open without their long term completion goals in the picture. This may give you a chance to bring in some money from players to offset your costs of future development.
Limit player time. For games that are on free hosting services where you can't afford better servers you can consider putting playtime limits on the players. This is usually my very last recommendation because it means you will also be closing yourself off to potential customers but it is a possible solution if your server quickly becomes bogged down or runs out of resources.

If you are an advanced user when it comes to servers you can get great prices with DigitalOcean's cloud servers. Server start at only $5 a month and go up in about $5 increments. I have 15 servers for only $120 a month. If you use my referral link you'll get a $10 credit to try it out. https://m.do.co/c/e429deb227cb